Little "black-ish" star has huge dreams

ABC/Eric McCandless(LOS ANGELES) — When bespectacled starlet Marsai Martin grows up, she wants “to be a legend.” And at 13 years old, the actress is well on her way.

For four seasons she’s played witty twin Diane Johnson on ABC’s black-ish, she’s rubbed shoulders with Hollywood’s king and queens — Beyonce, Jay-Z, Oprah Winfrey and Jordan Peele, to name a few — and she just recently announced a boss move of her own.

“black-ish is really just the start of a new beginning,” she hinted to ABC News months before announcing that she’s executive producing her own film in which she’ll star.

Universal’s Little will see Martin portray a young woman who decides to revisit her youth in an effort to qualm the pressures of adulting. Jumping to the big screen is all part of Marsai Martin’s game plan.

Marsai Martin said that she “stands on the shoulders” of women like Whoopi Goldberg “the first black women to win an EGOT” — that is an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony Award.

Marsai Martin also acknowledged Ethel Waters, the first black actress to be featured on a sitcom, Beulah, and Diahann Carroll, the first black actress to star in her own TV series, Julia, — the first time a black actress didn’t play a domestic worker.

She also paid homage to her favorite singer, Brandy, whom she called a “double threat” for her singing and acting ability.

The actress said these women, “knocked down doors, broke ceilings and paved the way for me.”

Before theoretically taking over the world, however, Martin said she’s “definitely thinking” about first going to college.

“I’m looking at [co-stars] Yara Shahidi and Marcus [Scribner] and saying, ‘Hmm, OK, I should start thinking about this. It’s also something I should figure out before it actually comes,” she said.